Tokyo 2020: Hong Kong hurdler Vera Lui’s Olympic hopes dashed after Queensland Track Classic called off
- The 25-year-old will cut short training stint in Australia and return home this week
- Participation in February’s Asian Indoor Championships in China also ended after event cancelled by organisers
Vera Lui Lai-yiu’s Olympic qualification bid was thrown into disarray after organisers called off this week’s Queensland Track Classic due to concerns over the coronavirus.
Hong Kong’s leading women’s hurdler, Lui left the epidemic battered city for Australia last month, hoping that the event could boost her world ranking so that she can get into the 40-member list for Tokyo this summer.
“We thought it could be an opportunity as the Track Classic in Brisbane offers additional ranking points,” senior vice chairman of Amateur Athletic Association Simon Yeung Sai-mo, who accompanied the athletes to Australia, said.
“Some of the overseas hurdlers could not reach Australia in time as the organisers had earlier introduced a 14-day quarantine for overseas athletes which should give Lui some advantages. But then all of a sudden they decided to call off the entire event over the weekend.
“We now have to work out a new plan as time is running short for the qualification and it certainly makes life more difficult for Lui.”
The Queensland Track Classic is one of the 10 legs of the World Athletics Continental Tour at silver level, which will grant athletes the opportunity to gain valuable “B” level points as they strive towards the Tokyo Olympics.
Lui now ranks 56th in the world but with a quota of 40 for the Tokyo Olympics and a maximum three athletes from one nation, she still has a chance to make it. The 25-year-old did well in a warm up race last week in Brisbane when she won the Queensland Athletics Championships, her first event in seven months after the World University Games in Italy last summer.
In February, Lui also hoped to boost her world ranking at the Asian Indoor Championships in Hangzhou but those hopes were dashed when organisers called off the event because of the growing epidemic in China.
Yeung said that, as the coronavirus outbreak is becoming more serious in Australia, there is no way they stay in Brisbane where they have been based since late last month but cut short the training stint.
Lui and her coach Tang Hon-sing will return to Hong Kong this week.
“We plan to go to Europe after Australia when the track and field season begins but now no one knows what will happen in Europe then in consideration of the latest outbreak of virus,” said Yeung.
Athletics Australia and Queensland Athletics announced on Sunday the postponement of the event scheduled for March 20, citing safety for athletes, staff and officials their biggest concern.
